Scooter

here's the situation...

when backing up in a straight line, everything's fine...

when backing up and turning the wheel to the LEFT (so im making a J-shaped turn while backing up), i get this nasty grinding sound...the only way to describe it is take a card from a deck of cards and put it inbetween spokes of a bicycle and get on the bike...that "flapping" noise the card makes is similar to the sound i get from the front left side of the car when backing up...i have thought of a few possible reasons:

1. the tire is rubbing against something, possibly something in the well or the mudguard...i have the Pilot Sport A/S 225/50/17

2. when the car is engaged in Reverse, it may not b fully engaged, but the fact that i can backup in a straight line and not get the grinding pretty much dismisses this possibility

anyone have any insight to this?? could it b more mechanical that i should have Jens take a look at??

thx

JRock

Well it's kinda hard to tell without being there. And it's not a MAJOR problem unless it is a gear grinding, but if it's only when turning to the left it's most likely the tire rubbing on something, but then it should do it on the other side when you turn to lock to the right.
What suspension mods you have?

soopa

i get same sound... but i get it whenever im at low speed and my wheel isnt straight

heh.

ball joint or tie rod or something.

bnavarro

ck the fender well for signs of rubbing or anything unusual.

limuas22

That same thing happened to me several months back! It freaked me out, I was backing up and turning also. I had the pulsating brake problems so I thought it might be by brake pads and the rotors causing that horrible noise. After I took it to the dealer to get the new pads and resurfaced rotors, it hasn't happened again...not sure if that was the root of the problem but it's fixed now.

By the way I don't have my car lowered and still have stock tires and rims, so in my case the tires couldn't have been rubbing.

Scooter

it's a major problem for me...considering my car is basically 2 years old, that's pretty good.

suspension mods include Comptech springs & sways...i'll include the ss-lines also since they're in the general area of the problem

Shawn S

If it happens at LOW speeds, find a big parking lot and have someone walk along beside the car as you are backing up and turning the wheel from side to side.

Either that or put CHALK on the inside edge of the tire and then look to see if it rubs off.

Shawn S

astro

sounds like a bad cv joint to me.
typical of fwd cars...

CharlesNguyen

U're running w/ 225-50-17, that's 5mm taller than stock, & w/ dropped springs. Your tires may be rubbing something in the fender well.

Mine is 235_40_18 (1mm shorter than stock) w/ dropped springs & I used to slighly rub the plastic well cover, but I sanded it down a bit & I am fine now.

Check for rubbing spots... Don't think it's the CV joints.

Scooter

stock tires = 215/50/17
my tires = 225/50/17

Scrib

I'm running 225/50s and no problems. Then again, I'm not lowered. I'm hesitent to say it's a rubbing issue. That just doesn't smell right.

I'm guessing ball joint...